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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Early 2006 Highlight, April 15, 2006
*absolutepunk.net*
Whether or not you're a card-carrying member of the Saddle Creek fan club, you have to concede their knack for putting out records that stand apart from every Tuesday's heap of jewel cased, 12-song, compact discs. The latest grassroots indie exhibitionists to join the glorified Saddle ranks are Adam Stephens and Tyson Vogel of Two Gallants, wielding only their guitars, their drums, a harmonica, and well... their throats.
With the basic elements intact, the Gallants perambulate a spectrum of punk-country that could only spawn from the mating of a harmonica and Stephens' harsh rasping (you can practically hear the poor guy's throat tearing up). Sometimes gushing with sweet and other times burning sour, Two Gallants attempt the Decemberean task of telling old-time tales but with a half cup less romance and a quart more grit. In the place of The Decemberists' quixotic swashbucklers we find the type of desperate, weathered figures who report from a run-down prison, resent their lazy white slave-master, or make statements like "You might have seen me 'neath the pool hall lights/Well baby I go back each night/If you got a throat I got a knife/Steady rollin', I keep goin'."
When band becomes bard we know to expect long-winded and often lengthy tracks. This is no exception, with three songs spanning the 9 minute mark, and those in between at least edging 5. However, there are only nine songs in sum, keeping the record just under one hour. "Las Cruces Jail" welcomes you into this jagged little world where you can virtually envision the tumbleweeds rollin' by and feel the rattlesnakes slithering past your ankles. Offering a sampler of both sugar and spice, track one offers a good approximation of where this record attempts to take you. The bouncing verses sound akin to older folk in the realm of Johnny Cash, and when they slow down - well... you choose the alt-country comparison. On those aforementioned long-runners a single picking pattern dominates most of the song, which is soothing and easy on the ears but runs the risk of redundancy at some point or another. However, those songs do a good job of augmenting in weight and potency as they play out, eventually reaching an electifying paramount ... so if you've got the time, it should be more of a listening pleasure than a chore. Plus, production is in a word: ideal... a perfect merge of raw and polish.
Other publications have come down pretty hard on the lyrics, which contain allusions and direct dialogue concerning racial prejudice and such. While the need for the "n" word in any rock song is certainly questionable, Two Gallants ramble through the record pretty elegantly and there is a rather clear notion of where historical foundation ends and mere storytelling begins. It's simply an attempt to paint a picture of another time and place and For Whom the Toll Tells succeeds in doing just that. Perhaps not a showstopper - yet - Two Gallants are an early alternative highlight for the year, and hey... how many other punk/country duos can you name?
-AbsolutePunk.net
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6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent Follow-up Album, March 12, 2006
If you have the first Two Gallants cd, this is an obvious buy. If not, you can pick up The Throes or this and not go wrong either way. Great mix of folk and indie rock. If you still like MTV then this music is probably out of your league, but for people that have developed their music taste and are looking for something new, pick this up, you won't regret it.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Usually I don't bother with the review thing..., July 2, 2006
Where to start? Gritty and rough for sure. Sounds like it could be the soundtrack for a Steinbeck novel the story telling in the songs is that vivid. I too was a little suprised at the use of the "N" word but who uses it and how it is used is much much more important (not that this is the difinitive forum for such a topic).
More than anything the tight/sloppy playing speaks to me and pretty much defines the vast majority of the music I listen to (Eno, Big Star, Mats, etc). If you took Mark Arm from Mudhoney and put him in front of No Depression Uncle Tupelo then you would have Two Gallants.
As for the 4 star rating lets be realistic everyone thinks the cd's they buy are five stars or they wouldn't buy them and 5 stars is overused on amazon anyway. This is a fine effort and certainly worth owning but it falls into the "nice to have" vs "essential" category.
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by Two Gallants 
